June 8, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. --- UC Irvine's Tim Hutten was named recipient of the 2007-08 Peter J. Cutino Award Saturday night at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.

The award is given annually to the outstanding male and female collegiate water polo players in the nation as voted by the coaches of the Division I universities.

The award is in honor of the late Peter J. Cutino, the former University of California and The Olympic Club coach, who passed away in September 2004. Cutino, who is in the U.S. Water Polo Hall of Fame, was named national Water Polo Coach of the Year 17 times. He led Cal to eight NCAA national championships. During his career, Cutino also coached in the Olympic Games, the Pan American Games, the Water Polo World Championships and the World University Games.

Hutten, who completed his senior season at UCI last fall, scored 75 goals this past season and led the nation with an average of 3.75 goals per game. He was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation's Player of the Year and was first team All-America. Hutten was this year's recipient of the "Vellekamp Award" scholarship at UCI.

He scored at least four goals in 10 of UCI's 25 games, including a school-record nine in an 18-6, non-conference win over UC San Diego Nov. 7.

Hutten was named MVP of the MPSF Tournament after scoring 12 goals in three games as the fifth-seeded Anteaters advanced to the championship game for the first time in history.

He had three goals in a 10-9, sudden-victory overtime win over UCLA, five in a 13-12 win over top-seeded Cal, and four in a 10-6 loss to top-ranked USC in the final. UCI finished the season 14-11 overall and had a final national ranking of third.

Hutten is currently competing with the U.S. National Team.

The other male finalists for the Cutino Award were California's Michael Sharf and USC goalie Adam Shilling.

Courtney Mathewson from UCLA won the female award.